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[kotogames]

Hello,

My name is Tomasz Kot. Koto Games is my indie game development brand.
I have just finished the development of my first game called Draggo Fury: http://kotogames.com/DraggoFury.html
The game is mainly targeted to kids, though I think everyone who likes platform games can have fun playing it.
Here is the trailer:



I've been developing it a few months in XNA (Flat Red Ball). The game does not seem to be attractive (low demo download rate). I'd like to make and enhanced edition (a few new levels, monsters) but do not have a feedback about what is to be fixed/added to make it more playable.
Maybe someone more experienced could advice?

Regards

Tomasz Kot

[UltimateWalrus]

Hi Tomasz,

Congrats on finishing your first game!  This is a pretty impressive first try.  Before I give advice on the game, I have some general advice about indie game development.

Ask yourself, what would be more fun?  Pouring more hours into this project, or starting a brand new one?  I think starting a brand new one would certainly be better for honing your skills at this point.  I had to make literally dozens of games before I started getting skilled enough to make anything close to professional.

Also ask yourself, is this game really marketable?  I've been making indie games for over 15 years, yet all of the games currently on my site are free.  I offer them for free because I know people are much more likely to play them that way.  I might be able to make a few bucks by charging money, but it would prevent a lot of people from trying it.  I feel the exposure I get from releasing free games (which could be valuable in the future if I do try to sell something) is much more valuable than just a few bucks.  I could offer demos of course, but I feel people shy away from demos as well since they're sort of like advertisements.

Onto the game: people will usually look at the screenshots/video before they bother downloading, so what will probably contribute the most to your download count will usually be the graphics (unless the gameplay looks exceptionally unique or intriguing).

Your graphics do have a certain charm to them, and there are certainly games that do prerendered sprites very well (Donkey Kong Country, Mario RPG).  However these games all look very cohesive, and the sprites work together with the backgrounds.  In your game everything seems to clash --- it's hard to distinguish the sprites from the background, the colors are running willy nilly, and the style of some art assets (the ones drawn in 2D) starkly contrast with the pre-rendered 3D ones.

I think you can get more mileage out of your sprites if you were to open them up in Photoshop and tweak them.  Here is my advice:
*Try to make the sprites easily distinguishable from background elements.  One good rule of thumb: Hue, Saturation, and Value.  There should be a big difference between sprites and background with at least two of these color values.
*Think very carefully about the colors for each sprite.  Try limiting the number of different colors that are used within each sprite.  It's more important that the color give the sprite personality than the colors actually matching what the real-life object would look like.
*If you can, replace the drawn assets with pre-rendered 3D ones to make them better match the style.

I did download your game and play it a bit.  It seems like a fun little platformer, but I didn't understand the button layout.  Why "R" to shoot a rifle, but "Alt" to push a ball?  Couldn't it be just one action key?  Most games would probably use "Z" for jump, "X" for fire, and "C" for action, since the buttons are all very easily accessible from one place.

I hope my advice was helpful.  Good luck with your indie game development adventures!

---Sebastian

[terri]

I don't know if the trailer's music was overpowering it, but it seemed to me like the sound effects were scarce and bland.

[kotogames]

Hi Sebastian

Hi Tomasz,
Congrats on finishing your first game!  This is a pretty impressive first try.  

Thank you, it's nice to hear it, especially  from such experienced indie game developer.

...Ask yourself, what would be more fun?  Pouring more hours into this project, or starting a brand new one?...

I will have to consider pros and cons. The game was planned to be part of dreambuildplay 2012 competition. I started to do it too late, dev was too slow in and did not
manage on time. If there is a new competition this year (unlikely), I will surely fix few things and participate with that title.

Also ask yourself, is this game really marketable?  

--Apparently not , I'm not a big fan of action platformes. I did for my 5 year old son. He plays it with a passion - that kinda rewarding .

I've been making indie games for over 15 years, yet all of the games currently on my site are free.
I offer them for free because I know people are much more likely to play them that way.  
I might be able to make a few bucks by charging money, but it would prevent a lot of people from trying it.  
I feel the exposure I get from releasing free games (which could be valuable in the future if I do try to sell something) is much more valuable than just a few bucks.
I could offer demos of course, but I feel people shy away from demos as well since they're sort of like advertisements.

To tell the truth I thought that giving a demo hoping someone like it then buy it, is a standard manner of distributing games. Maybe in indie world it's different.
Personally I find such approach fair. Having said that, I must admit your approach is impressive (you are truly a devoted game developer) and in the long distance can be fruitful.

In your game everything seems to clash --- it's hard to distinguish the sprites from the background, the colors are running willy nilly,
and the style of some art assets (the ones drawn in 2D) starkly contrast with the pre-rendered 3D ones.

Yes, coherent and appealing graphics is a challenge which I could not meet. I'm a programmer not an artist. I'm found of Blender 3D - most amazing app ever made. I know it quite a bit but technical skills
are surely not enough to make a quality graphics. Plus I'm rubbish in 2D editing (basics of GIMP).
I think though if someone told me earlier - man this graphics sucks change it that way - I guess I'd do better.

I think you can get more mileage out of your sprites if you were to open them up in Photoshop and tweak them.  Here is my advice:
*Try to make the sprites easily distinguishable from background elements.  One good rule of thumb: Hue, Saturation, and Value.  
There should be a big difference between sprites and background with at least two of these color values.
*Think very carefully about the colors for each sprite.  Try limiting the number of different colors that are used within each sprite.
 It's more important that the color give the sprite personality than the colors actually matching what the real-life object would look like.
*If you can, replace the drawn assets with pre-rendered 3D ones to make them better match the style.

Thank you, I'll use these precious hints in the future.

...Why "R" to shoot a rifle, but "Alt" to push a ball?  Couldn't it be just one action key?  
 Most games would probably use "Z" for jump, "X" for fire, and "C" for action, since the buttons are all very easily accessible from one place.

Well, when I now think about it I can not find a single reason to have separate key for push and rifle - that's a terrible pitfall .

Sebastian big thanks you for the review. BTW, I checked your site, downloaded 'Conquer The Shadow World'. Had to switch to Novice to be able to make progress.
It's a classic example that game-play is what matters. I found it enjoyable!.

[kotogames]

I don't know if the trailer's music was overpowering it, but it seemed to me like the sound effects were scarce and bland.

Hi Terri
I must say that finding a decent sounds matching game characters was the most troublesome aspect of that game creation. There are a lot of sites providing fee ones but they are varying in quality (mono/stereo, frequency differences, noise ...). I know there is Audacity to address lots of these issues - but mastering that tool takes time. Sure there are commercial packs of sounds but there are out of my financial capabilities. As a result some entities in the game lack sound, some sounds can not match the others.

Tomasz

[UltimateWalrus]

Hey Tomasz,

I'm really glad you like Conquer the Shadow World!  I'm also happy my feedback was of use to you.

Here is my personal feeling of how the indie economy tends to work.  Games that actually sell well tend to be either very polished (Super Meat Boy), or very unique (Minecraft).  If your game fits into either of these categories, you might actually get a little more attention by selling it and putting it on sale for a while.  But if your game is on the smaller side and maybe not as polished, chances are people will pass it up if they see they have to pay.  It's very hard to compete in a world where you can buy Zeno Clash for only $1.  Making all of my games free is not necessarily out of any extraordinary generosity on my part, just the knowledge that, at least in their current state of polish, trying to sell most of the games on my site would work against me (by narrowing my audience) rather than for me (gaining exposure).  Having a demo for a paid game is certainly quite fair, but my instinct is usually to release small projects for free (though you'll notice on my site, "Trike" has a demo version, and when I do release the full version it'll probably be a buck or two.  I need to re-do all the art in it though).

In response to your troubles with sound: I also find free sound effects to be, in general, very low quality.  I usually use soundsnap.com... the selection is usually much higher quality, and at around $1.50 per sound it's cheap enough for a broke indie dev like me to afford.

Alternatively, you can very easily make your own sound effects using a program called sfxr.  It really is an awesome sound-effect generator... you can click the buttons to, for example, create random "jump" sounds until you find one you like.  Once you get more comfortable you can even start playing with the controls and tweaking the sounds to make them even better, or make them from scratch.

I wish you the best of luck with your indie endeavors.  You seem to quite sincerely want to get better and improve your games.  If you ever have questions you think I could answer, feel free to email admin {{{at}}} ultimatewalrus {{{dot}}} com.

---Sebastian

[kotogames]

Hi Sebastian,

I agree that the market is very competitive and it's extremely hard to stand out of the crowd. I thought over approach to distributing my games and the plan is to give the full version after some time (e.g. a year).

Thank you for the links for sound resources - will be helpful in  the future.

I played Trike a few minutes (got 8 points ). It's very demanding (as game should be). My main problem so far is to be able to steer the player fluently. Will have train more.
Great game, got my voice on the Greenlight!

What do you think about my possible next-platform game design (Blue background to be replaced, circle red bordered monster is a sprite)?



Regards
Tomasz

[UltimateWalrus]

I think this art definitely shows improvement!  The backgrounds are very nice.  It's a neat visual style.  My only nitpick is with the character sprites.  Possibly in part because of how small they are, they have a lot of little details that don't seem to "read" well.

Ideally, you want all your sprites to have personality.  If a sprite is displayed small on the screen, you generally want it to have it have a very simple design that reads well even when the sprite is tiny.  One reason why pixel art is often so appealing is because it basically forces people to have a consistent level of detail across all their sprites.  When you go hi-res, it's a little bit more difficult to get the same appeal, as you need to worry about balancing out the detail levels yourself.

Even though your games aren't pixel art, I still think Super Mario World would be a good reference, as it's generally accepted to be a very visually appealing platformer.  Yoshi's Island as well.  There are sprite sheets online.  Since you are doing a prerendered style, Mario RPG might also be a good reference, although some of the art in that game is a little silly...

What you should notice about these sprites is that they usually aren't that detailed, but they have very solid, appealing, simple visual designs.  My brother is a really good artist and I believe he said an appealing sprite is often like a piece of candy that you want to grab and put in your mouth... if that makes sense 

Also, pay attention to how easy it is to tell a sprite from a background element.  Right now they kinda blend together.  Perhaps you could darken your background a bit so the sprites stand out more?

[kotogames]

Hi Sebastian,

Thank you for the another set of useful hints. I'll try to incorporate them if I happen to do the next project.

Regards
Tomasz

[kotogames]

Hello,

After few years, a simplified, redesigned version of this game is available on Android  .
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kotogames.draggo_furyII

Regards,
Tom